Namely, Rush Limbaugh. (Hat tip to Mike Hewitt, who posted the article.)
I know that the left automatically assumes anything he says is a dumb idea. This one isn't; so if any lefties read this, I advise them to listen up.
Rush made the point in a recent show that the bailout process, thus far, has failed, everywhere it's been tried.
...As I myself pointed out earlier today.
This one, I hate to say it, guys, isn't open for discussion, really, except in degree; it's a simple fact that you cannot unsink a leaky boat by patching one hole with material you cut out from somewhere else on the boat.
At any rate, Rush proposes a straight-up comparison test.
The left is always ranting on about how conservatism doesn't work, and "progressivism" does; how right-wingers don't care about people, and they do; how capitalism fails, and socialism works LIKE MAGIC; so he proposes to put them side-by-side and see, once and for all, what the truth is.
The way he figures it is that - counting the folks who voted for independents and Bob Barr as Obama votes, in the interest of giving the lefties as big a chance of success as possible - 54% of the voters picked Obama, and the other 46% picked McCain.
So, he proposes dividing the $825 billion the Obama plan is asking for by those percentages; that's $445.5 billion for the left to spend in any way they please, and $379.5 billion for the right to spend.
Then, do the Democrat spending first; see how it affects the economy.
Then use the Republican money for cuts specifically in the capital gains tax, and the corporate tax rate.
And see which of those affects the economy more profoundly, and more positively.
Rush makes the point that even DISCUSSING that as a possibility would cause the stock market to perk right up; even DISCUSSING cutting capital gains and corporate tax rates - currently the highest ON THE PLANET - would result in immediate improvement in the stock market.
Because the economy CANNOT improve as a result of government interference. Economy is not a function of government; it is a function of business, and for business to improve, you have to ease the burdens on the businesses, not increase them.
You cannot tax your way out of a recession.
You cannot SPEND your way out of a recession.
The only thing you CAN do to help end a recession is end the government behavior that brought it about; in this case, market interference and insane tax rates.
...Kennedy cut taxes to end a recession, and it worked.
FDR taxed and spent to get us out of a recession, and we had the Great Depression.
Now, these are not Rush's figures; mine are better. This is because he went with a trillion dollars as his base figure, because he was on the air and thinking on his feet, and 46% is easier to get from "1" than it is from ".825" thus giving me the advantage in exactitude. I note this in case anyone who read the transcript is confused by the difference between my figures and his. The math is the same; I just had more leisure time on it than he did.
Now, Rush recommends - and I totally agree - cutting corporate tax rates in half; our current rate, 35%, is obscene, and fucks the poor mercilessly.
...What, you didn't think WALMART pays taxes, did you? That's a lie; they simply raise prices. Poor people pay taxes; ALL taxes come directly or indirectly from citizens.
Raise the tax on oil companies? Fuck the poor.
Raise the tax on retail industries? Fuck the poor.
Raise the tax on banks? Fuck the poor.
Raise the tax on fast food joints? Fuck the poor.
Raise the tax on insurance companies? Fuck the poor.
Are you seeing a pattern, yet? It's there, I assure you.
At any rate, Rush is proposing a direct comparison, in an actual economy. Not a theoretical exercise in a classroom, but an actual practical experiment in an actual, functioning economy.
Put your money where your mouth is, libs.
I bet you don't, because you know as well as I do that any direct comparison in actual reality will NOT go well for your ideology.
But you'll try to blame Rush - and people like me - when your ideas fail, won't you?
